An automated chemiluminescence test for diagnosis of leukocytospermia

A new rapid and sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) test was developed for the analysis of leucocytes in semen. Opsonized zymosan induced luminol-dependent CL of diluted (1:500) semen was measured in samples from 64 fertile and infertile men with or without leukocytospermia, using an automated luminometer set-up. The white-blood-cell (WBC) count in semen was determined using a conventional leucocyte-peroxidase staining method. A good linear correlation (r = 0.932) was observed between the seminal white-blood-cell number and the CL response. The coefficients of inter-assay variations for the CL method were 9.6% and 1.8% for semen samples with 0.3 x 10(6) WBC ml-1 and 3.2 x 10(6) WBC ml-1, respectively. The results also suggest that the previously reported inhibitory effect of seminal plasma on CL activity of human phagocytes is due to the quenching of light-producing reactions and that this can be circumvented by using appropriate semen dilution. It is concluded that the simple and high-capacity CL test is an especially convenient method for routine diagnosis of leukocytospermia.